Which leads me to believe that the purpose of the article is to suggest that only political hacks may make inferences, which then must be accepted as wisdom by the great unwashed.
In short, "the nerve of some people, encouraging others to think for themselves!"
Yes, it is a leftist-identified "malady" called cyberbalkanization.
It's a bad thing, dangerous for our democracy when the little people "cling" to their beliefs and don't spend enough time educating themselves with the feeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings of the anointed ones.
"Republic.Com" written by an employee of the University of Chicago and very, very popular among the anointed ones argues that government should force the little people to stop being so narrowed minded.
I have not read the book but I've heard a couple of interviews with the author and read reviews of the book in the MSM. They loved it.